YOU’RE NOT
Ann Marie, Roslyn and Meg are all Lanarkshire mums who have experienced loss of unimaginable magnitude.
Anne Marie Cocozza was only nine years old when she made the first of three attempts to take her own life after years of abuse.
Roslyn McGilvray’s 20- year- old son, Paul Gerard (PG) McGilvray was brutally murdered in Coatbridge in 2004 by a frenzied knifeman who bragged to police he enjoyed it. He was Ann Marie’s nephew.
And Meg McCloy’s tormented 17-year-old boy, Steven, chose suicide as the ultimate escape from years of relentless bullying.
Yet, instead of allowing the grief and tragedy of suicide and murder to define them, the three survivors are standing defiant with a shared purpose of ending the heartache they have endured by launching Wishaw charity, Families and Friends Affected by Murder and d Suicide (FAMS).
FAMS currently has 25 active e members from across Lanarkshire, each with their own story to tell.
There is a tangible sense of positivity y in the air as they fuss over the three e month old rosy-cheeked baby whose e mum, Charlotte Cassidy, tried to take e her own life three times between the e ages of 13 and 17.
Fittingly, the baby girl, who epitomises everything FAMS strives for, is named Hope.
Ann Marie, Roslyn and Meg came e together in a meeting of minds in 2013 3 to form FAMS.
Recently retired chairperson Ann n Marie is evidence, if it were needed, that suicide is no longer the last taboo.
She speaks candidly about the e mental health issues she battled d with as a survivor of child abuse and d the untreated post traumatic stress disorder that resulted in three suicide attempts, the first at the age of nine, then at 15 – and most recently in her 50s.
News of the recent loss of two young people in Lanarkshire hit all of FAMS’ members particularly hard.
“FAMS’ aim is to engage with the youth of today – the next generation. If we are going to reduce or stop suicide, it will be through educating and raising awareness among young adults,” explained Ann Marie, of Hamilton, who last week met pupils at Coltness High to do just that.
“Any mother I have met whose child has been murdered or has taken their own life has, herself, felt suicidal. When someone dies through suicide, quite often children in inthe the family are forgotten.
“In their grief and chaos, parents try to protect children, who as a result become forgotten victims.”
Charlotte Cassidy was one of those ‘forgotten victims.’
She was nine years old when she discovered the truth about the circumstances surrounding her dad’s death seven years previously.
George Balmer was only 28 when Charlotte’s mum, Grace O’Neil, discovered him dead on the floor of their Bellshill home. He had taken his own life.
“He took his life when I was two. He left a note saying: ‘ If this works, tell Charlotte I am sorry.’ I had all this anger for everybody. I was self harming and tried to take my own life a couple of times,” explained Charlotte, who says